Quality of food - getting worse?

Seems like quality of food is going downhill - anyone else noticed?

I seem to have a 50/50 chance of a 'Perfectly ripe Avocado' of actually being ripe. Shouldn't *all* produce be ripe anyway? Why do we have to have things labelled as 'perfectly ripe'? Is it a get out clause for everything else? The non-Perfectly ripe avocados are usually hard as rocks.

Lettuce appears to be lacking in water content too; feels drier and not moist/juicy like lettuce should be.

It's particularly annoying because it's also happening at Waitrose - where people are willing to pay a premium for quality

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

As you get older your taste buds die off and stuff just doesn't taste the same anymore.
Perhaps it's your advancing years Azz.

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

The answer is to grow your own vegetables, if you have not the garden space, try a local greengrocer who is probably buying fruit and veg from local gardeners. -When you have sampled home grown peppers you will never again be satisfied with the foreign stuff in the supermarkets.

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

ive noticed you rarely get a nice tasted Tomato, Spring onions,new Potatoes like in years past , is it because they are massed produced ?.
I saw on tv that now fruit is grown all year round in Poly tunnels ,and they are grown off the ground , i remember picking strawberries in the fields on the floor bedded in straw , with the sun shinning on them to ripen them .,

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

I haven't noticed a difference but then I am 'picky' and like to shop at 8am before the armies of the great unwashed have touched anything and all the produce are still fresh.

I also go to the WI market on Fridays if I can and fight with my elbows to buy freshly picked garden produce from there

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

I was just thinking maybe we are more picky now than we used to be.

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

Some foods need to be sold ripe some unripe. You might want some avocados but don't plan to use them that same day. So I have no issue with them selling both so long as they are properly labelled.

Same goes for bananas. I'm not wanting to eat a whole bunch the same day I buy them so they need to be unripe or half way between ripe and unripe.

Generally speaking though I agree that supermarket veg is fairly tasteless and poor quality. If only I lived in the Mediterranean ! As other posters have highlighted, just grow your own veg. It's really easy.

We grew veg in pots on the patio and it was amazing. Charlotte Potatoes grown in potato bags were the best, absolutely yummy. Courgettes, leeks, radishes, onions all easy peasey to grow. Beans and peas tended to get raided by pigeons

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

Remember a lot of stuff is treated with a preservative or kept refridgerated for a long time if coming from abroad to stop them ripening before point of sale.
This must have some bearing on how they taste

Not having been allowed wine or beer for the past half year or so due to a dodgy highly inflammed Gall bladder (now removed) , I had a pint the other day and it seemed so much stronger than I have ever had before.

So if you don't have a product for some time memories can exaggerate/deminish taste to a degree.

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

Taste, being very subjective and dependant on very many factors will obviously differ very greatly from person to person....end of story !

Re: Quality of food - getting worse?

Ive noticed how much of the fruit and veg in supermarkets is just bland tasting and awful...I do try to buy from a small greengrocers in town which sell a wide variety of stuff...eggs I buy fresh from my neighbour free range laid the same day.
I used to enjoy the taste of tomatoes too but never buy these from the supermarket now theyre just dead tasting of nothing.